"we can only do what it seems to us we were made for, look at this world with a happy eye but from a sober perspective.”

-W.H. Auden

Its name, hardly a good marketing decision, invoked the eclectic collections that Renaissance nobles assembled—cabinets of curiosities—and reflected the desire to look at the world with a sense of wonder.

Wunderkammer Magazine exists to provide a thoughtful examination of culture and society. It is founded on the belief that in order to fully understand what it means to be human, we must understand the era in which we live.

Wunderkammer takes its name from the eclectic, encyclopedic collections of the old nobles which served as microcosms of a baffling world, demanding examination and inspiring curiosity from its viewers. Just as those collections varied in scope, the magazine engages art and culture, technology and education, politics and society, religion and travel. Through thoughtful essays, reviews, and interviews on these topics, Wunderkammer hopes to be a witness of the age. Its goal, as the great English poet W.H. Auden wrote in his poem, “The Horatians,” is to “look at this world with a happy eye, but from a sober perspective.”

Wunderkammer takes its name from the eclectic, encyclopedic collections–cabinets of curiosities–assembled by Renaissance nobles which inspired both awe and a sense of wonder for the world.